


Apprentice

by Northflower



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northflower/pseuds/Northflower
Summary: Miles wins a competition that lands him a week-long apprenticeship in Alchemax. It's a great learning opportunity for sure, but his glorified tutor ends up being someone he wasn't quite expecting.
Relationships: Miles Morales & Olivia Octavius
Comments: 10
Kudos: 204





	1. Chapter 1

“Thank you everyone, we’ll continue tomorrow!”

Liv sighed as she allowed her wide smile to finally drop down. She gazed upon the whiteboard behind her, which was riddled with bright blue number, graphs and terms. She wiped the board clean with her hand, as the rag she would usually use had mysteriously disappeared and she wasn’t about to go look for it. She loved her work and she loved teaching, she really did, but it had been a long day and the unhealthy amounts of caffeine she had consumed were about the only thing keeping her going at this point. And she would still have to bike home…

The filming team around her slowly dispersed as she dragged herself to her lab to put away her work for the day, and to grab her backpack. The wide, inconvenient windows that were way too easy to peer through were often a source of comfort for her, showed that she had nothing to hide, even though she technically did, and flooded her room with light and the sight of the beautiful trees. But now, they only dragged her mood further down. It was hailing. That was the final straw.

Olivia pulled an emergency foldable mattress (a project back from her times of studying that still proved useful to this day) and it neatly sprung open on her floor. She practically crashed onto it, not caring about the small amount of dust that had found its way onto it. She took off her octagon shaped glasses and curled up. She would have been out within seconds, if it wasn’t for the sharp knock on the floor.

Honestly, she didn’t have any energy left to get up. She was about to let the person behind the door think that she had gone home already, but they were persistent. She sighed and dragged herself up and to the door. Hopefully it was something important, or else she might have to wash the blades of her extra limbs again, which she knew from experience would be an awful amount of work and probably keep her up even longer. Liv slid the door open.

A scared-looking intern whose name Liv had never bothered to learn looked at her with wide eyes, probably having expected to see someone a little more enthusiastic, and was instead met with a dead, borderline murderous look. The intern fiddled with the papers she was carrying. They were on top of a neat folder, neater than necessary. An overachiever.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was told to- instructed to bring you the word of a- REMIND you-“ the intern stumbled across her words, not quite remembering what she had meant to say. Liv was about to shut the door in her face when she finally regained her composure.

“Please, doctor Octavius, the selected students from Vision Academy are coming to start with their practice week here tomorrow, and doctor Houser has fallen ill… He asked me if I could ask you apprentice his student for the week instead.”

Liv sighed. She was entirely too tired to argue, especially since Houser was probably already long gone. He probably hadn’t wanted to bring the subject up to Olivia himself, perhaps out of fear or not wanting to seem incompetent, and issue which sending an intern to bring Liv the word really didn’t help with. She was really quite busy, the next day probably not being any easier than this one. But she would get a head start due to sleeping at her office and would have some more time to sleep.

The yearly competitions run by the Alchemax for the high school students was really nothing more than a publicity stunt. Liv thought they were inconvenient, how are you supposed to keep up secrecy with a bunch of Visions children running around? And they were, always, from Visions Academy. No question about that. Some of the students could be quite fascinating to be around, but a good bunch of them were alike the person standing nervously in front of Liv; overachievers. Always keeping up a good posture and skipping along, not asking any questions but merely smiling and agreeing about everything with anyone. Oh, doctor Octavius, I heard about your recent take on the quantum theory, and I must say I quite agree, oh, doctor Octavius, I find your work deeply inspiring. She could see right through them and spending as much as a minute around them made her blood boil. It took all in her power to keep the white walls of the facility pure and clean.

“Sure,” she said and finally shut the door. She turned around, the weight of her body feeling like entirely too much as she plummeted down to her mattress again.

The next day, Liv was full of energy once more, and regretting her decision to agree last night only a little bit. Having to shower in the smelly showers of Alchemax did little to bring her down. She breezed through her morning filming sessions without slurring her words even once, and her smile never faltered as she once more remembered why she did this in the first place. Her blood rushed faster as she got to a part she was particularly passionate about, and she made effort not to wave her hands around too much to unsettle anyone. She wanted to remain approachable, but professional.

The glorified tutoring she’d have to do in the afternoon had almost escaped her mind by the time she got to lunch. That’s why she was so confused when one of her coworkers arrived at her table. She had a tired look in her eyes, one that wouldn’t ever be faltered no matter what happened. She was apathetic. Olivia quite preferred that over the antics of some other people in the facility. She wore her hair in a ponytail and looked like she could use an entire pot of coffee as she led a child to the table. Olivia probably wore confusion on her face, as she felt it necessary to speak.

“Doctor Octavius, this is your apprentice for the week. From Visions Academy?” her voice dragged on the words. Liv finally remembered, and got up to put on a smile as she drew in the child’s appearance.

He had a round face, dark skin and fuzzy hair. His build was somehow skinny yet muscular at the same time, and his eyes were wide open, with… Olivia furrowed her brow. Was that fear? She was quite confused; she knew that she could be intimidating sometimes, which came in handy in her other work, but she thought she was usually able to seem decently harmless. Yet the child was looking at her with a deer-in-the-headlights look. It wasn’t the same kind of a slightly intimidated yet seeking look that she got from most of the people trying to get in her profession.

“So, you’re one of the winners of the physics competition? Congratulations,” Olivia tried speaking, her voice hopefully masking her intrigue with the strange manners of the kid. He seemed to snap out of his trance.

“Y-yeah, I… Yeah it was, nothing. I mean, quite hard, but… Yeah,” he stammered, and then chuckled lightly. Liv was puzzled. But she was sure she’d be able to figure out what the kid was all about with a little time.


	2. Chapter 2

The strange behavior of the kid didn’t cease. He stuttered when he introduced himself, and his handshake was quite probably the clammiest Liv had ever experienced. Miles’, as she learned his name was, hand was somehow extremely sweaty yet adhered to her hand at the same time, to the extent that for a second it seemed like it was stuck. This clearly did nothing to help the kid’s panic.

Olivia felt like letting it slide. She had seen nervous kids before, some found it hard to keep their composure even when they were visiting with a group of students. Hell, sometimes even adults behaved anxious around her. Usually the nervousness would diminish by the time that the people would get to know her a little better. Her natural mannerisms screamed something along the lines of “hippie science lady”, and while some people would be weirded out by her once she’d begin to talk about something that was important to her, it would reduce the intimidation factor. And despite having slept well, she wasn’t going to deal with a jumpy, nervous wreck following her around all day, even if that was definitely preferable to the usual stupid children she’d lead around.

So, in order to speed up the process, Liv decided to immediately bring Miles for a little tour of the labs while talking about the scientific advancements she had aided in. This not only gave her a chance to show her less intimidating side, but also it was genuinely fun. All she could hope was that the kid wouldn’t turn from nervous to one of those kiss-ass students.

But to her surprise, the kid remained nervous. It even seemed at times that he was so distracted that he didn’t pay attention to what she was saying at all. His eyes were wide but not with interest. He would nod and hum at roughly the correct times, yet his gaze kept going to other places, as if he was looking for a quick escape. He was attentive, but not towards anything that she was saying, despite having won the competition and clearly having an interest in physics.

She would test her occasionally, ask him a question about something she’d been saying. He’d seem confused for a second and then reply with perfect knowledge of any subject that she’d ask him about. However, he would sprinkle in details that Liv had not been talking about at all. She experimented further, asking him about something that she hadn’t even talked about. He would still reply with correct knowledge, if a bit brief and simplified, without blinking an eye. Without even realizing that he’d just been asked something he wasn’t expected to know about.

So, Liv concluded, he was sharp. He was distracted, but he could afford to be. The source of the distraction was still unclear, but Liv could detect that any time that she turned away he would be glancing in her direction, as if trying to read something from her that she wasn’t saying. He would jump back any time she turned his way and quickly avert his gaze.

But perhaps Liv was being paranoid. Maybe the kid was just a little jumpy, or maybe he’d had some sort of a bad life experience before. It didn’t necessarily have to do with her, and honestly, why would it? Outside of her criminal life, Liv could appear quite harmless. Her interests weren’t anything malicious. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe all of her other work was finally starting to make her misread her surroundings. Maybe it was the hectic work schedule she’d been keeping up lately. Either way, she could begin to ignore the kid’s strange behavior. She got used to it.

After the initial shock, the kid seemed to start to calm down as well. He was still on his guard, still ready to run, but his shoulders started to come down from being clamped close to his ears. Generally, he seemed a bit more relaxed, now seeming less like his life was in danger and more like a schoolboy before an important exam. He stopped merely listening to Liv and would occasionally ask questions as well. Sometimes he even had impressive insight, and thought of things Liv hadn’t yet considered, such as better materials for certain gadgets.

It was a breath of fresh air after all the students who would merely attentively listen and occasionally make a fake compliment. Miles was a real person with a real interest, and real ideas and real mistakes. Liv felt more comfortable than in a long time bringing a student into her own office.

Upon entering, Miles’s former panic returned for a while. He looked around wildly, his gaze lingering on certain objects, and again, it seemed like he was looking for a quick escape. But as Liv started to introduce the place and show some things she’s been working on, he relaxed once more and started acting more like the smart kid he showed promise of being.

It wasn’t as bad as Liv had thought. Apprenticing the kid was an excellent excuse to not encage in some of the more tedious of her daily tasks. It wasn’t draining, either, in fact it was quite fun. And Liv never saw any reason why science couldn’t be that way. The only small downside to having Miles around was that she couldn’t work on the update on one of her tentacles. She’d been working on it earlier, and the tentacle was now well hidden in one of her larger cupboards, and if she’d have to use her tentacles now, she would only have three of them instead of four. But as long as nothing happened, that could wait.

Hours passed quickly, and only the growl of her stomach was able to snap Liv out of her work. She excused herself and told Miles to wait for her while she went to get a bagel from the cafeteria. She felt no reservations with leaving Miles by himself for a second, as he had shown to be surprisingly careful yet independent when it came to observing her work.

Which is why it came as such a shock when upon her return, Miles was no longer working on the small task she had given him.

The kid froze in place, her back to Liv as she came through the door. He was slightly crouched over one of the counters, and swiftly swung his arms to rest on the counter way too widely to be comfortable, as if he was trying to cover whatever was on that counter. He then turned around awkwardly, trying to not reveal whatever was behind him.

“Oh, hi! Uh… You’re back! Already…” the kid stammered, and then coughed awkwardly.

Liv took a small bite of her bagel, before beginning to slowly walk towards Miles, trying to peek behind him.

“You didn’t touch anything, did you?” she questioned.

“NO! No… well, yes?” Miles replied, his voice jumping up an octave.

“Well, could you please move aside then?”

The pulled at the counter in a weird way, with surprising strength that caused a nasty noise from the counter scratching the floor.

“Uh, yeah, just… wait a minute.”

The kid tugged at the counter a couple more times before finally getting thrown off balance by the force of his own pull. He muttered something while shaking his hands as if he’d burnt them. On the counter was the fourth tentacle that Liv had been working on. She felt her eyes involuntarily widening as the implications of this went through her head. How much had the kid figured out?

“You see, uh… I got a bit bored, and started looking around here, and I found this! I do some gadgetry myself, so I just thought it was really cool and wanted to look at it for a second- Yeah.”

Miles spoke entirely too fast, and if Liv had not been used to people speaking way too fast by now (herself included), she would probably not have been able to comprehend what the kid was saying.

It was suspicious, that’s for sure. She would have to look into this more.

But for now, it seemed entirely more pleasant to fix her tentacle worked along with Miles, opposed to sawing his head in half and then having to deal with the consequences of yet another person going missing in the grounds of Alchemax. So that’s the option she settled for.

Again, even though Liv was the one who had developed the technology, Miles was a real help in fixing it. It was clear that he had experience in gadgetry, so at least not everything he’d been saying was a lie.

“So, what kind of gadgets are you working on?” Liv queried as they worked.

“Oh, you know… School projects, and stuff.” Miles replied with a nervous chuckle.


	3. Chapter 3

Work couldn’t always be fun, it seemed.

It was always a thrill to fight against the new Spider-Man, since it was clear that the kid had not quite mastered the quips yet. While Liv missed the banter with the previous one, being able to talk non-stop without the kid intervening was a nice change of pace. He always seemed genuinely terrified with his wide eyes reflected by the mask, but while the adrenaline could keep the pain away in battle, afterwards Liv would regret getting kicked in the jaw. For a bunch of times. It was a wonder that her jaw was still in place, in fact.

That ache was nothing that an ice pack and a couple of painkillers couldn’t fix. However, this time things had gotten a little more serious, as her and the boy had been in a building rather than open space. With less space to retreat or dodge, they’d had no choice but to keep throwing punches. There was a point at which Liv had admittedly begun to look for a way to escape without turning her back, despite the fact that she felt that she was winning; the spider was visibly in pain, stumbling every time he landed and making more mistakes than usual. In the end, he was the one who managed to get past Liv and flee. The good thing was that this meant that the battle was over. The bad thing was that the kid had shamelessly stolen her haul. That she stole, but still.

Still, Liv was almost relieved to return home bruised and battered. Another tentacle would eventually need repair, she thought, but not today. She wanted nothing but to go to sleep but instead she dragged herself to the bathroom to survey the damage. Her goggles had painfully sunken into her face in a manner that she wished the marks would go away by tomorrow morning. Her chin had a bloody bruise on it, and upon removing her clothes to shower she noticed dark purple splotches all over her skin. Her back and legs ached, and the hot water running over them did nothing to help. In the end, she decided to just try sleeping off the damage.

But as Liv woke up groggily to her alarm, it was clear that the pain was still present and making itself known. Liv sighed as she realized that she would still have to bike to work. The weather was nice enough, but her back already protested to her getting up, and she would have rather not found out how it would respond to biking. She thought about calling sick from work, but then there would be more work to do another day, and she honestly wasn’t sure if she could handle that. And the tentacle needed repairing, so she might as well get that done at a proper lab. Sighing she prepared herself some quick breakfast and mentally prepared to ride that bike.

Upon arriving at work, her back had not gotten any better. She kept telling herself to cheer up, but her coworkers kept looking at her for a little bit too long, probably upon noticing the bruising on her face. Luckily, they knew not to bother her when she wasn’t feeling well, so she didn’t have to stop to chat to anyone before getting to work.

“Hello Doctor Octavius!” she then heard a familiar voice call.

She let out a long sigh and tried to put a fake smile on. She had forgotten about the kid.

Turning around to face the boy, Liv’s fabricated smile faltered a little upon noticing that Miles didn’t seem to be having the best day, either. He had a yellow, healing bruise on his face, and upon closer inspection Liv could see that there were other ones peeking under the heavier-than-necessary clothing he had chosen to wear that day. Liv supposed it was fashion.

“Well, you look roughed up. What happened to _you?_ ” Liv questioned, having assumed that the kid had already noticed Liv’s similar state.

“Oh, this, the things just got a little rough in gym class,” the kid chuckled, pulling his sleeve over the bruising. Liv raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you didn’t have school during this… apprenticeship?”

Miles froze.

“Oh, uh- no I don’t, I just… I tutor in gym!” he stammered out. Liv looked him up and down. His build didn’t exactly seem like the gym tutor type with his lanky arms and with how short he was. Miles followed his gaze, and seemed to realize what was going through the scientist’s head.

“No, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m uh… stronger than I look. I’ll show you, wait-“ he spoke quickly as he looked around to see that there was nobody too close to him, before crouching down just a tiny bit and pulling off a successful backflip. A couple of people in the hall turned to look, and one of them even clapped. Miles blushed.

“Yeah, heh, thank you…” he muttered and cleared his throat. Liv was surprised. The only thing that confused her was that the bruises looked like they must have been healing for a couple of days already, yet the kid hadn’t worn them before. Or maybe she just hadn’t noticed. Maybe half-healed bruises were easier to perceive due to the change in hue. She always thought that those ones looked sort of sickly. Maybe humans were better at noticing things that could potentially indicate disease? Liv hummed to herself. That would make an interesting research topic, if that was her thing.

It was when she was working and Miles was helping her that Liv realized that Miles hadn’t asked her about why she was injured. Miles hadn’t been around for long enough to realize that talking to Liv when she was hurting wasn’t exactly a good idea, so this didn’t make much sense to her. She didn’t feel like pointing this out to him, though, if anything she liked the chance to have her mind put away from the injuries. She wondered if bringing one’s attention away from an injury was truly beneficial, or if it would cause prolonged suffering as the reduced perception of pain would cause the person to further stress the injury. That would also be an interesting research topic, but maybe belong to the medical field. It was not like she needed any more projects.


	4. Chapter 4

They say that time flies when you’re having fun. Well, Liv guessed that this was her version of that.

Miles had shown to be incredibly helpful. Whenever the physicist felt like the work was too much to handle, the kid could probably take over some of it, and Liv didn’t even have to supervise him that much. Occasionally she would give advice, but most of the time, the kid was very capable of handling things on his own. It was really no wonder that he had won the competition.

It was strange, but Liv also found that she felt fond towards the boy. He was enthusiastic and insightful, much reminded Liv of herself when she was younger. She found herself involuntarily smiling upon seeing him, and even laughing with him as he made funny comments while they were working on something. The glorified tutoring had somehow turned from a parasitical relationship into a symbiosis. It was all going so well that Liv even thought she might actually miss Miles once he’s gone.

The last day of the apprenticeship went as swimmingly as ever. Liv invited the boy over for a coffee in the cafeteria so that they could just sit and talk for a while. They ate bagels and sipped on their respective hot beverages as they talked about mainly science, but also touching on their personal lives.

“So, what do you do when you’re not working here?” Miles asked. Liv smiled. The business she was mostly doing perhaps wasn’t the kind of thing to speak about around the coffee table.

“This and that, whenever I have time. I ride my bicycle and take pictures of trees, mostly,” Liv replied. “And you?”

“Art,” he quickly replied. That’s another thing Liv liked about him. He could be very straight-to-the-point if he wanted to. But right now, it felt like he was avoiding the question by giving a short reply. Liv wanted to get the most out of the last day she was spending with the kid.

“What kind of art?” she asked. The kid squirmed a bit. “I won’t tip anyone off to it,” Liv promised, and finally, Miles sighed in defeat.

“Graffiti, and stickers.” He whispered, which was really unnecessary seeing how the cafeteria was buzzing with life; everyone seemed to be out of their offices enjoying a break as the sun was lighting up the room through the huge windows. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood; it had been a bit of a cold week, so a little sun was welcome. Liv smiled. She couldn’t really care less if Miles was doing something mildly illegal. Really, who was she to complain about such a thing? It would have been weirder if the kid was into fanart or something.

Even the best of days had to come to an end. Saying goodbye to the kid was a bit painful, but Liv promised to fill out the little form the supervisors of all the kids had been sent with praise. Miles seemed happy, and waved goodbye to her as he left her office for the last time. Liv looked after his faint shape that could be seen through the material of the walls until it disappeared. All the tension from the first day of him being there was gone.

Liv turned away from the door and sighed softly, looking out of the window to find that the sun was still shining outside, going through the autumn leaves that were hanging on to the trees and painting the small cover of snow below red. It was quite a beautiful day. Liv sat down and took a moment to just look at how bright it all was.

After a while, Liv’s eyes landed on a small shape next to the wall. She froze. It was a backpack!

Liv glanced back to the door. Miles would probably be out the building soon, or he had already noticed his backpack missing and would be returning to retrieve it in a minute.

She took in the backpack. It was angular and looked like it would crush the boy’s shoulders if he tried carrying it. Liv huffed to herself. It was crazy how much stuff the boy was carrying. He supposed most of it must be schoolbooks, but it didn’t make sense for the kid to bring such a plethora of them. The only objects Liv had ever seen him unpack were a water bottle and a notepad.

Snooping around in other people’s belongings wasn’t exactly a nice thing to do. This was something Liv realized. But then again, she’d done so much worse than disrespect privacy. Her curiosity was pushing her as usual. This time it wasn’t toward a scientific discovery, but simply finding out why on Earth Miles would be carrying around such a heavy bag. Therefore, Liv zipped open the biggest pocket on the backpack.

Most she could see at first was dark fabric. It was covering the rest of the contents of the backpack. Liv frowned. Change of clothes, maybe? Wasn’t he tutoring in physical education? She pulled out the piece of cloth, sincerely hoping that it wasn’t a piece of underwear. She unfolded the fabric to take a look at it. Suddenly, the face of her greatest enemy was on display right in front of her face. She jumped back in surprise and dropped the mask from her hands.

Denial set in first as Liv looked down at the face of Spider-Man. That’s what it was, no doubt about it, but certainly this didn’t mean that her apprentice was really him? Perhaps he was cosplaying. Or it was for a costume party… Did the youth still go to costume parties?

Then it all started clicking into place, as if this had only been the last piece missing. The boy was surprisingly agile, had bruising after the day her and Spider-Man had had a particularly violent fight, and in hindsight, even his voice was familiar. Liv cursed under her breath. She took the mask again, as if touching it would somehow prove it to be untrue. But the fabric was real, undoubtedly so. And he must have already known her identity, too. She had let an enemy into her personal office!

Liv couldn’t quite decide which emotion she should be feeling. She felt angry, but she wasn’t sure whether it was at the boy or herself. In the end, she was the one who had decided to put trust in the boy. And now, he had let her enemy slip from her hands, once again. She managed to drop her octagon-shaped glasses and went to pick them up. The blurriness of her sight reflected how she felt inside her head.

Then she heard the door to the lab open.

Liv almost leapt out of her skin as she quickly went to open the backpack and stuff the mask back inside, but it just wouldn’t fit!

She heard footsteps that she had begun to recognize; her apprentice was back. Liv was sweating bullets at this point as she tried to forcefully but discreetly put the mask in the pocket. Finally, she succeeded and closed the zipper, hoping that Miles hadn’t heard the distinct sound of a zipper being closed.

“Sorry, I forgot my bag! Uhm… what’s up?” the youthful voice asked. Liv was about to get up from the floor when she noticed that somehow the other pocket of the backpack was open as well. At what point had she opened it? She cursed to herself as she heard Miles approach.

“Nothing!” she yelled, simultaneously with her closing the other pocket, hoping that her yelp would cover the sound of the zipper. Then she quickly got up and turned around to face the now confused-looking Miles Morales. For a moment, they both stared at each other in nervous silence.

“Is that my backpack?” Miles asked, leaning to peek behind Liv. Liv moved to disturb the eye contact with the offending backpack.

“No! I mean, yes...” Liv corrected herself, realizing that there was no way she was somehow going to reposition the backpack without Miles noticing. So, instead, she looked behind herself, faking surprise.

“Yes, I suppose it is! Oh, silly me, let me step aside,” Liv yelped and then proceeded to do so. Miles went to grab his backpack and check that all the pockets were shut. He then looked at Liv. The tension could have been cut with a knife. Liv’s hear as well as her mind were racing. Surely, Miles knew that she could’ve looked inside the backpack and figured out his secret identity. Did he know that she knew? And why was she even nervous about this? Would the kid go on to expose her identity in preparation for her to reveal his?

Neither of them blinked an eye, as if that would give the other an opportunity to jump into attack. But finally, Miles straightened himself up from the floor, holding the heavy backpack with easy that was not so surprising anymore.

“Well, I suppose this is goodbye, for now?” Miles questioned, but despite the clear attempt to remain cool he was visibly rigid. Liv thought that it reminded her of the day that he had first arrived at Alchemax. She mentally facepalmed. So that’s why he had been so afraid back then.

The physicist walked towards Miles before moving between him and the door. The kid froze.

“Uhm-“

Liv took hold of the kid’s shoulder and looked down at him with a smile.

“Let me walk you out.”

“Oh, no I’m sure I know the way myself,” Miles tried reasoning, his eyes darting around once more.

“It’s no problem. I could use a breath of fresh air anyways,” Liv explained and opened the door for the kid. He hastily thanked her, and they walked down the cold, white corridors. These corridors held many fond memories for Liv, as she was sure they did for the kid, too. Her coworkers had complained for weeks after getting their workspace ruined.

By the time that they paced through the cafeteria full of Alchemax employees, Miles’s visible stress had grown exponentially. Liv merely smiled as her coworkers glanced her way as they walked past. Some of them looked a bit nervous. She supposed that they had learnt that her smiling when it wasn’t due to an experiment was never good. Miles seemed to think the same. They continued, without saying a word.

Finally, they reached the door outside. Miles stopped shaking and looked at Liv, quite confused.

Liv chuckled to herself. She would certainly kill the kid. But it didn’t have to be today.

“What’s funny?” Miles inquired, still wide-eyed.

“I don’t think it would be quite as funny to you,” Liv explained, shaking her head.

Miles nodded quickly before mumbling something about his bus and taking off with the speed of light. Liv watched him go and turned back to the labs. Her smile faltered. It was time to rearrange her entire lab.

Miles ran for a while, fueled by the adrenalin, before slowing down to a walk. He was amazed by the fact that he wasn’t dead. For a moment, he’d been sure that Doc Ock had realized his identity! He took off his backpack and started rummaging for his suit. There was no way he was taking the bus now; he’d probably get carsick.

The mask was in the wrong pocket.

Miles cringed. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend what had just happened. All that was clear was that he really, really needed to start hiding his suit deeper in his bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that there has been such a long gap between chapters! Been really busy with the finals coming up.
> 
> I reread the entire fic before writing the last chapter just to make sure that I wasn’t contradicting anything I had set up earlier and boy oh boy do I think my writing has improved from the first chapter.


End file.
